The Centre for Science and Enviroment had trawled government records to find that in the 11th Plan period, 267 thermal power plants were granted clearances amounting to 1.76 lakh MW installed capacity – almost double the existing installed capacity in the country.

This is about two and a half times the capacity of thermal power plants installed in the country in the 60 years af-ter Independence.

According to reports, the figures clearly indicate the lack of coordination in the government on managing supplies of raw material and streaming up the power projects.

Unlike the impression that was being lent out by industry lobbies, the rejection rate of environmental clearances in the past two years was an insignificant 1%.

Former environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh, while defending the ‘go, no-go’ policy, had also pointed out the unutilized capacities of Coal India but records also show how the thermal plants have not used their captive sources of coal, with delays at times so long that it forced the government to take back the blocks from the project proponents.

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